Spanish IVF clinics

[BellaFigura40]

Hi
I'm 39 and have been told my AMH levels are very low at less than 0.5. While I'm still considering another round to see if I can use my own eggs we are also considering egg donation in Spain as an option. We've been looking at the following two clinics IVF-Spain and Instituto Bernabeu both in Alicante.

Just wondering which one is the best, what was the experience like of going to Spain for this and an idea of the costs. Also did you go direct and deal with the clinics or did you go through a UK clinic with ties to these places?

Any information much appreciated.

I'm with Instituto Bernabeu Madrid, presumably similar to the Alicante clinic.
I also had a consultation with IVI Alicante, don't know anything about IVF Spain but will say Spanish clinics are generally pretty thorough.
One of the reasons we chose IB was their pregnancy guarantee programme where you have a cycle of own egg then two cycles donor egg and if you still don't have success you get a refund.
There will be various packages at clinics and they will assess whether you qualify based on medical criteria / age.
I was too old for a guarantee programme with IVI.
I'm impressed with the clinic so far.
I am not using any particular clinic in the UK, usually just use Ultrasound Direct although have recently found a few IVF clinics which do offer monitoring scans, with varying prices. One of the reasons I like UD is the flexible times but it has been more difficult to have availability recently as coronavirus restrictions of cleaning between patients meant less appointments available.

In terms of money I hardly want to count!
But we had a consultation and some blood tests with IVI, then decided against the clinic, the ultrasounds were £200 in IVI London. There was no discount for being a client of IVI Spain but if course wherever you have treatment if you have the ultrasounds in Spain they are included (and could work out same difference as the extra nights in a hotel could cost less than ultrasounds in the UK).

In IB we paid for consultation and further tests including karyotype.
Then we paid £17k for the guarantee programme and have added on extra egg collection and freezing (the cost difference for the extra egg collection was £1,400 more expensive in IVI but doesn't make a massive difference at the rate we're spending).
Have spent quite a lot on medication and ultrasounds, maybe £6k, but I've had some bad luck with cancelled cycles and of course the medication cost is part of that.
Also flights and accommodation, have gone fairly budget and usually stayed in an apartment and will do the same again due to coronavirus and social distancing so we can self cater. And supplements, no idea what I have spent on those!

That said you could just go for a straight IVF cycle and get lucky but we preferred the guarantee programme.
Most of the cost has gone on zero interest credit cards.

Any other questions I can try and answer.

@JeNeBaguetteRien Thanks for the info its much appreciated. Feel my head is all over the place with this at the moment. I'm back and forth with do we try with my eggs at a private clinic in the uk as didn't have a good first experience with NHS or do we go straight to spain and go down the donor route. They've said 5% chance of success because of low amh where it would be 90% chance with a donor.

Hi @BellaFigura40, I also had a very rubbish NHS IVF experience.

We had a consultation with a private UK clinic and two Spanish clinics. For us the Spanish clinics were streets ahead (and in the case of IVI their Spanish clinics offered techniques not available in their UK clinics). Of course there are some good UK clinics so if you find one convenient to you that's great.

Travelling to Spain could be a hassle. For us quarantine is not a disaster as I WFH anyway and DH can do so.

One of the things that made us choose IB was the guarantee programme with own eggs then donor eggs. It appealed as I didn't feel my own eggs ever stood much of a chance with our crappy clinic, but I'm realistic enough to know my age is against me. This way I feel I've given them a chance and we feel it's our best chance of being a family which is the ultimate goal.

Hi,

I have 13 year old twins from embryo donation in Spain. One thing to be aware of is that Spain is anonymous as opposed to say, UK, Portugal and other countries which have donors willing to be ID released when your child is 18. This is something to bear in mind when you are making your decision.

Another thing to note is that not all Spanish clinics give the same amount of donor information and it is worth asking this question as your child may like more info. For example, my children only have age and blood group, whereas another clinic may give eye and hair colour, weight and height, education etc. Not all donors are Spanish and that may also be an issue?

I would also definitely recommend counselling if possible to go over some of the issues involved in becoming a parent using donor conception and also maybe have a look at the Donor Conception Network website for information. They have a helpline.

I am happy to answer any questions!

Best,
C

Hi! I have a 5 year old conceived via DE at IVI IVI Alicante. At the time they had a partnership with my clinic in Oxford so all meds etc were done here and we flew over to give the sperm and then back twice for frozen transfers. Second time gave us our son. All in all complete with flights and a 5 star hotel it totalled about £10k. IVI were excellent throughout. We know our donor's age, height, eye colour, blood group and hair colour.

I have experience with Instituto Bernabeu in Madrid and I cannot thank them enough. They are very professional and I'm very grateful for the care I received.

Ditto what CuteBubbasMummy said because like her, we were at the same clinics at the same time! Not been on here for a while and I NC a lot but she won’t be surprised to see me pop back in.

(Except we were donor egg and donor sperm, had fresh transfer and were drug-free because I reacted badly to them)

IVI Alicante managed it first time with us after the UK failed for 18 years.

@InfertilitySukks hey! Hope you guys are all doing ok! I'm a lurker here too!

We used IVF Spain in Alicante and found every aspect wonderful. They were so helpful and professional and friendly- they helped us by booking the hotel and airport transfers in a private car. We were advised to use them by the private clinic we were using in the Uk.

We used donor eggs due to me being late 40s and hardly any eggs/amh levels low. First time lucky. It worked! I was pregnant but it turned out that at the 7 week scan, the baby had died very early on - there was basically nothing there. We had two more embryos so having used the first one as fresh, we then used the 2nd frozen one. It didn’t work - pregnancy test negative. Third time, it did work and we now have a 5 month old son!

Hello!
There are many great clinics in Spain. As I understand IVF Spain is one of the best in the world, as it ranked 2nd according to this organisation.

gcr.org/top/fertility?page=1&per_page=16&sort=score&age_category_id=1&order=desc

Hi ladies, I am also considering Spanish clinics for my third IVF cycle, after two unsuccessful cycles in the UK. We are torn between Clinica Tambre in Madrid and UR Vistahermosa in Alicante. Any advice on these clinics would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hi. I'm looking at ivf clinics in Prague and Spain. Has anyone done this recently. I wanted to know who you use here to get scanned as I wouldnt want to stay in either country for weeks. I could go over for egg retrieval and transfer. Do the NHS offer this or private clinics. Thanks in advance, appreciate any help on this. X

@Michelle5178 it seems you are intending to use only donor sperm, not donor eggs?

If only donor sperm the clinics may want you to have at least one scan there to check progress before egg retrieval, but prior to that you could have monitoring scans in Ultrasound Direct or a private fertility clinic.
It's not something the NHS would do (unless you are eligible for NHS funded treatment, assuming you have checked your options).

In that case you'd be looking at a week abroad, maybe a little longer if you need a few more days on medication.

@Fabsco I don't know those clinics but have heard they are good, did you make further enquiries?

Hi Kankiu. It would be my husbands sperm. I normally stay on medication for longer as my lining is thin. I've had a successful ivf my daughter is 4, but my FET failed last month. I don't have any more frozen. Thanks

Sorry Michelle, when you mentioned egg retrieval I thought your own eggs so assumed donor sperm (only because it's the donor conception forum).
If you are just looking for a Spanish clinic then the previous advice still stands anyway, the monitoring scans could be mostly done in the UK.
You and your DH would both need to be there for egg retrieval, unless they freeze his sperm. You'd need a plan for your 4 year old if you and DH need to be at the clinic at the same time, unless they'd be staying at home.

The clinic will need up to date blood tests (HIV, syphillis, hepatitis) and probably sperm analysis. It's often cheaper to do those in Spain with the clinic even taking into account travel etc and they could freeze sperm at the same time for future use which could mean you don't need DH to travel too for your treatment, if that would make things easier logistically.

Also meant to say sorry about the FET Michelle 💐

@Michelle5178 I had a number of rounds at IVF Spain a couple of years ago. We used donor eggs and my husband's sperm. He gave a sample the first time we went which was frozen, and then used to fertilise the eggs when they had been collected.
I did had he to be over there for a week for the first transfer as that's when they did the collection from the donor so they couldn't be exact around dates. We had a little holiday at the same time.
Subsequent transfers were FETs and I could literally go there and back in a day if I'd wanted to.
All scans were done in the UK, at my NHS hospital but on a private basis.

Sorry to hear about your failed FET, I know how heartbreaking it is.

@Zankiu Apologies for the delay in getting back to you! My initial appointment with Clinica Tambre was lovely and I noticed that they went through my documentation in detail. HR Vistahermosa was a big disappointment as they suggested egg donation straight away. I was 39 at the time and my AMH was 21.5, but the doctor seemed to think that my chances of conceiving with my own eggs was small. Since then I had appointments with five other clinics in the Czech Republic, UK, Ireland and Spain, and none of them discarded my eggs that quickly!

We have decided that this is going to be our last cycle with my own eggs and want to try everything that we can.Hopefully it will give me closure if I need to move to egg donation. Good luck with your treatment and lots of baby dust your way!

Hi @Fabsco with your AMH I would not jump to donor eggs immediately, yes we know quality diminishes with age but totally get that feeling of needing to have closure before the possible move to donor eggs. That's a great approach to contact several clinics, you can really get a feel for where you are comfortable with.

Good luck with your current treatment and one step at a time, hopefully it works out but if not you know you've carefully chosen a clinic to give your eggs a chance, and if you need to come back here in the future there will always be people to listen or advise.

@Zankiu Thank you for your reply; that's exactly how we feel about our chosen clinic. DH and I will do extensive blood tests to rule out genetic or immune causes for miscarriage and our new clinic will attempt to retrieve as many eggs as possible. I'm really grateful to find so many supportive people in this forum! Good luck with your treatment as well and know that we're here for you.

@BellaFigura40

How did you get on?

@JeNeBaguetteRien - Thank you for your well written and detailed summary of the start of your journey with Instituto Bernabeu Madrid - this has been invaluable (...also just taken a decision to go with the guarantee programme with IB -> 1 IVF cycle with own eggs & 2 cycles with donor eggs).

If you have a moment, please could I ask you:

1. Scans at Ultrasound Direct - did you "pay-as-you-go" or did they given you some sort of a bundle pricing? (I have not used them before so this is an innocent question. From having called around, many fertility clinics, even those that I have used in the UK, have implied that I need to buy a "package" which includes preparation tests we do not need.)

1. Medication - Where did you source your medication? (I have been looking around for pricing and as B2C customer / "a consumer with a prescription in my hand": ASDA Pharmacy with its non-profit status seems to be the cheapest but with some lead times, followed by small privately owned pharmacies (with also long lead times) with circa 1.5 multiple on costs, and lastly large pharmacy chains with 1.8 mark-up multiple or more (Lloyds, Superdrug etc). With UK based clinics you often get assigned to an online pharmacy like "Stork" or "Fertility2You", and the clinic "silently" takes a cut also from medication costs (and hence pricing varies notably by clinic even when using same online pharmacy, like Stork).

1. Accommodation - which source did you find to work best for you - Airb&b or other local site?

1. "Extra egg collection" -> IB has also recommended us to do the extra egg collection/ double stimulation. Did you do the extra stimulation "back-to-back" from the first stimulation, or did you do the extra stimulation in the next cycle/in a later cycle? If you did them back-to-back, would you now recommend to stay in Spain for the duration (as you say, scan costs in the UK, flights back and forth, plus covid tests, and taxis.... may offset each other)?

1. Egg donation rounds - your update above ends before we get to the egg donation rounds but if you did go ahead with the egg donation rounds, did you have fresh eggs from the donor, or were they frozen donor eggs?

1. Egg donation rounds - Secondly, how much of a profile detail did IB provide for you about the donor?

Following your post there has been some great comments. Thank you everyone - @Fabsco @Excitedbutcautious @InfertilitySukks @elsa2424

@Cutesbabasmummy
Sorry to jump in here but I’m also in oxford, would you be willing to share who you went with and your experience l? We’re contemplating what you’ve done x